Thursday, October 16, 2014

BOOK BLITZ ~ EXCERPT + Giveaway~Follow Me Home by Monica Goulet

16-year-old Kelsey
thinks her new house far away from Tulsa is the perfect place to escape her
past—until she meets Jay, the boy who used to live there.

After a series of mysterious break-ins at the house, Kelsey discovers the
culprit is Jay, but before she can confront him, Jay inadvertently sets in
motion a series of events that leave Kelsey and her family devastated and wind
Jay up in juvie.

Desperate to fix things, Kelsey confronts him only to discover Jay’s not the
delinquent she expects, but a boy with a past more messed up than hers. Against
her better judgment, the two of them form an unlikely friendship she keeps
secret from everyone.

Then Jay asks for a favor she didn’t see coming – one that leaves Kelsey torn
between her growing loyalty to Jay and throwing away the new future she worked
so hard to build.

The whispers around me start to get louder, and I turn my head slightly. Several eyes are on me and they all move away when I look. My stomach drops. This can’t be happening. Not here.

Mr. Horrigan turns to the blackboard, and a piece of paper flies toward my desk, but lands on Melody’s instead. She passes it to me without meeting my eyes. I unfold the note under my desk and squint to make out the words: Someone’s horny for Horrigan.

My jaw drops. What? Because I was paying attention to him? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do in a classroom? Someone behind me tries to stifle their laugh. No, it must be something more. My hand starts shaking, and I try to glance down at myself without being obvious.

I take a sharp breath. This can’t be happening. I cannot ruin everything on the first day of my chance to start over.

I close my eyes and silently count to three. My face is hot and dozens of eyes are on me. Mr. Horrigan pauses mid-sentence, and I can tell he’s about to tell everyone to be quiet. I know from experience someone will blurt out some embarrassing comment about me when he does.

I stand, my legs sliding the chair out behind me so fast it slams into Taylor’s desk. I bolt toward the door. A guy fake coughs from the back corner, trying to disguise the word slut. I slip out, slamming the door behind me, the eruption of laughs and shouts muffled by the door as I run as fast as I can to the bathroom.

I wait in a stall until my breathing slows. Seconds pass. Minutes. Holy crap. This was not part of the first day plan. I replay the scene over and over again, cringing more every time.

The bell rings, and I wince. I lean against the stall until the door to the bathroom opens. Girls spill in. I pull my sweater out of my bag and put it back on.

“How was English?” someone asks. I peek through the crack by the stall door and spot two girls standing in front of the mirror, fixing their hair – one brunette, the other blonde.

“Lucky you. I think I’m going to change my last name to Huddle or something so I can sit beside him next time.”

“You’re not even in the class.”

“But if my name was Huddle I’d make sure I was in all Ms. Friedman’s classes. She always does alphabetical order.”

I can see the brunette roll her eyes in the mirror. “Did you hear about the new girl? Mandy said she totally flashed Mr. Horrigan’s class.”

I suck in my breath. Flashed? This day is getting worse by the minute.

“I heard David talking about it, but I thought he was exaggerating.”

“Nope. Her shirt was so see-through she might as well have been sitting there topless.”

“Seriously? Hasn’t she ever heard of a bra?”

I cringe behind the stall door. I’m so stupid. I had this whole day planned out perfectly, and I ruined it before I even walked out the door.

“Yeah. What a slut,” someone says.

I slink back away from the door and lean against the side of the stall to keep from falling over.

“I guess the look on Mr. Horrigan’s face was priceless. Ashley said you’d think he’d never seen tits before.”

“Probably hasn’t.”

I drop onto the edge of the toilet seat and close my eyes. The two girls laugh and start talking about some guy one of them met over the summer, but I barely hear them. I hold my breath until they leave and then let it out. It comes out in a choked sob and I try to hold it back, but the tears come anyway.

A toilet flushes, and my heart stops.

I don’t let myself look out the crack this time. The water runs and I let myself breathe until it stops. Then, silence.

I close my eyes. Please leave.

About the Author

Monica Goulet writes and lives in Oshawa, Ontario with her
husband. She graduated from Brock University with a Bachelor’s degree in
English and Professional Writing.

In her other life, she’s an instructional designer and a mother-to-be who
likes ice cream, running, and losing herself in a good story.